The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. [Psalm 19:1-4 (NLT)]
In 1929, the Coca-Cola Company coined their famous catchphrase, “The pause that refreshes.” That also would be a great slogan to advertise the power of prayer. Just imagine what would have happened if God, like Coca-Cola, had used heavenly copywriters instead of prophets and disciples to publicize His word. Maybe Lazarus or Zacchaeus could have been hired for celebrity endorsements. If Moses had been given the slogan, “He’s the real thing!” along with those Ten Commandments, maybe the Israelites wouldn’t have worshiped Baal or erected Asherah poles. While dentists and dietitians probably disagree about things going better with Coke, Christians wouldn’t disagree if God’s ad men promoted our Lord with, “Things go better with Jesus!” If heaven’s version of Madison Avenue got to work, we’d be in good hands with God instead of Allstate, the Holy Spirit (and not gas) would be the tiger in our tanks, and we’d spell relief as “J-E-S-U-S.” The NY Times slogan, “All the news that’s fit to print,” would work perfectly to promote the Bible and, instead of a diamond, it would be salvation that is forever. Other possibilities include, “Like a good neighbor, Jesus is there,” and, “With a name like Jesus, it has to be good!” Rather than Alka Seltzer, “Try it! You’ll like it!” would promote Christianity and Visa’s slogan could be reworked as, “God’s everywhere you want to be.” To publicize heaven, the ad men could borrow Johnson & Johnson’s, “No more tears!” and revise Disney’s slogan to, ”The happiest place not on earth.” The one tag line that would never fly in God’s board room, however, is Burger King’s “Have it your way!” It will always be God’s way!
The thing is, God isn’t interested in pithy sayings and I’m not so sure He wants our complex relationship with him to depend on a couple of witty words or catchy phrases. Tag lines might catch our attention but God wants our hearts and souls. Moreover, unlike Madison Avenue’s copywriters, God won’t deceive or mislead, even to convince us to follow Him. Unlike those ads for drugs that insert the side effects in impossibly small print or speed through them at the end of the commercial, Jesus was explicit when he told his followers that life would not be easy. God has never sugar-coated the truth.
Unlike businesses, God doesn’t need to hire ad men or ask for anyone’s endorsement. One of his best advertisements is far better than the best ad campaign and is obvious to all—His spectacular and fantastic creation. Moreover, His word as revealed in the Bible tells us all we need to know and is far more meaningful than even the best catchphrase. “The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need,” and “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal Life,” pretty much say it all! And, let’s never forget that our Heavenly Father really did care enough to send the very best!
I found an odd synchronicity in my morning’s reading. The verse for the day was Matthew 7:12, the Golden Rule: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.” Following that was a story by Christian author and speaker Lysa Terkeurst. She wrote about speaking to a group when a woman walked up on stage, stood next to her, and then leaned into her. Standing before an audience of 6,500 women, unsure of what to do, the author simply put her arm around the woman and continued speaking. The woman later said she needed God and thought if she got close enough to the Christian speaker, she just might feel Him. The third portion of my reading included the above selection from C.S. Lewis’ writings.
Jealousy – that green-eyed monster – certainly caused a lot of problems throughout the Bible. The first case of sibling rivalry occurred when Cain, jealous that God approved his brother’s sacrifice but not his, killed Abel. Saul was jealous of David’s popularity and battles were fought, the Jews slandered Paul and Silas because they were jealous of the large crowds that gathered to hear them preach, Jacob was jealous of Esau’s relationship with Isaac, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery out of jealousy and the prodigal’s brother became jealous when his father threw a party for the black sheep of the family.
An interview with God would appear to be a journalist’s dream opportunity! As I started thinking of questions, I realized I wouldn’t want to know the answers for many. I don’t want to know when or how I’ll die and I certainly wouldn’t want to be privy to that information about anyone else. I wouldn’t want to know exactly what will become of friends who don’t believe or who will go where at judgment. A friend said he might ask how he was doing but, fully aware of his failings, realized he probably wouldn’t want to hear God’s answer. Some friends in Chicago might want to ask Him about the Cubs but, unless they were gamblers, knowing the answer would be a season spoiler. There is much that God could tell me that I wouldn’t want to know because I could never live with the weight of His answers.
Since Jews are prohibited from possessing any food products containing leavening (chametz) during Passover, a Muslim Arab-Israeli man in Abu Ghosh now owns most of the bread, pastries and beer in Israel. As they have for many years, Israel’s two chief rabbis sold all of the leaven food from state-owned companies, the prison system, and the national emergency stores to him. He symbolically purchased the chametz for the duration of Passover by making a small down payment. Having promised to pay an enormous sum at the end of Passover, at week’s end he will tell the rabbis that he can’t pay up, the deal will be canceled, his down payment returned, and Israel again will own its yeast-laden products. Here in the U.S., some Jewish families “sell” their chametz to non-Jewish friends and then put the food in an out-of-the way cupboard. Technically, while still on their property, it’s not really theirs because they’ve “leased” the cupboard to the Gentile buyer. After Passover, the lease expires and the food is sold back to its original owner. While this may circumvent the law, I’m not sure it’s what God had in mind when He commanded, “There must be no yeast bread or any yeast at all found within the borders of your land during this time.” [Exodus 13:7]
Devotions of the Heart 